I was up earliesh this morning, and decided to head to Vietnam, to one of my favorite stores there, Hawaii Supermarket. It is necessary to get there before 10:00am to easily get a parking space.

What I was after was jellyfish. They are the only store that has properly hydrated jellyfish, a tub each for "heads" and "bodies" (the dome part).

I also got some Fresno chilis, which I was out of, and some Thai bananas. Then I looked around for anything else I might be interested in.

Yes! they had a bin of frozen packages labeled "Whole Muskrat" How could I resist?

Well, not quite whole - missing head fur and guts, but I don't need those parts to make a muskrat stew.

So far I have resisted what's there in the second bin to the right of the muskrats, whole armadillos - but it's inevitable that eventually I'll take the risk of contracting leprosy** and buy an armadillo, but they're quite expensive.

Hawaii Supermarket is the only one of the Asian markets that sells live hard and soft shelled turtles - but last week San Gabriel Superstore had a tank of live frogs.

** Most cases of leprosy in the United States used to be contracted from relatives, but the major vector today is handling armadillos.

. . Muskrat doesn't taste anything like chicken. Maybe something between Beef and Alligator - if you prepare it right.

At dinner tonight I was laughing - a) at my stunning first time success with my Muskrat Stew; b) at the three days of research that made that success possible; c) at the people who would never ever have the courage to try cooking Muskrat; d) at the disasters reported by people who thought they were great cooks and didn't need to do the research; e) at how fabulously this stew went with the Pinot Noir I served with it.

So, I now have my recipe for Muskrat Stew

Of course, the most important instructions are on my Muskrat page.

So, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this cooking stuff - not great by any means, but at least becoming competent.